Follow the Fader

Coachella Wrap: Day Two

Looking at the schedule for Coachella before we got there, the three days felt pretty equally potentially awesome, but after a long night's sleep on Friday night and Saturday morning reassessment, it became clear that Saturday was the day that would test our stamina. From about four o'clock to the dusty, sweaty midnight end, we jammed our faces off to everything from Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem to Arcade Fire and The Good, The Bad & The Queen. And at the end of the day, just like last year, it was a French dance duo that stole our hearts. After the jump, more photos and comments on Saturday at the Coach.

We just saw Hot Chip (with Beatriz) and they've already got 900 new heatrocks. These guys were the perfect end to an all-out sprint from the aggro ticket lines across the big ass field to the Mojave tent. We basically ran up on them and then ran around screaming and waving our hands like idiots and nobody even noticed because they're all doing it too.

Last year, a set at this tent, at this time was taking a few songs to fill up, but this year it was packed out from the first minute. We took it as a good sign that the kids were in full mayhem mode for the Chips at 4pm.

Our dudes Peter Bjorn & John followed Hot Chip in the Mojave which was nice because we didn't have to dance as hard to them. They're really great for sitting indian style. Looking to kick things up, we went over to the Rave Cave Tent to watch some MSTRKRFT, who then BLSTRKRFTD R MNDS (not pictured, thankfully).

It's funny how little hype or backlash or the internet mean when honest-to-goodness stadium rockers like Arcade Fire get on a stage this big.

This photo is an attempt to illustrate that. Tens of thousands of really stoked people of all ages dancing and pogoing and singing their guts out to music that no major label exec would ever believe he could sell.

And then came Justice. Ho. Lee. Jamfuckers. You couldn't even see these dudes behind their gigantron system, but people were fuhreaking out. Maybe it's obvious, but heavy metal club music inspires some of the raddest, most muscle-fucking dance moves ever. Like dudes were literally doing headbanging running man things, yelling "Ow!" and doing it again.

Here's a bunch of randoms onstage with Girl Talk.

We ran through Blonde Redhead's set for a second. Always jamming, but they fell victim to the schedule as is inevitable at Coachella.

Hot Chip homie dude with LCD Soundsystem!

Murphy kind of went for it, pulling out his best James Brown. Dude rocked linens all day Saturday, then killed the Sahara tent. At this point, we were honestly seeing spots and couldn't feel our feet. We also got really nasty looks from the photographers who are not into dancing with other photographers. Sorry dudes!

What more can we say about The Good, The Bad & The Queen? They sounded as good as they ever have as we iced down our legs and sprawled in the grass. We actually caught the Rapture somewhere in there too, but the desert ate our photos.